Life in Spring.

This post is for Jenny.

La vida buena.

Pandora(.com).

Over The Rhine (radio).

Endless hours of happiness, joy, and peace.

I can't choose a favorite song!

Okay, chosen. 'Blue Eyes' by Timmy Curran. Done.


Oh, and here comes graduation. Get me out of here.

I long for a week with my best friend and my parents... In, you know, just a little bungalow in Denver. With my own bedroom. And a hammock. A book? Maybe a movie? Hopefully the sun will be out... I'll sit in the hammock and wile the day away.

Oh, how life changes. It's so scary, and hard sometimes. But I'm thankful for those around me who support me, and us. I do love this.

Transitions...

Have always been hard for me. I always wait desperately for them to come and then cry about it later. Weird. This one, this next year, is going to be the biggest transition ever! But we get to do it together, and live in the grass and the trees and the sun... Together. Even though it will be hard... Engagement and marriage... We'll drive each other crazy. Oh, we already do! I'm excited about this. We love it. [edit: David insists that we don't drive each other crazy... Duly noted.]

Bloom is a magical place. Eh, that sounds weird. But people are sincere, in music and words and deeds, and I feel at home there. I never wear shoes, anymore, there. Even when rain turns to snow. But we remembered, yesterday, to take pleasure in the simple things. I love the encouragement that that idea is. Okay, I'll do that. Thanks!

Wishes.

I wish I could start every day like today. Walking, talking, sun...

Wonderful.

Summer.

I'm ready for summer. Two and a half weeks!

I love riding bikes... iced coffee... laying on the grass... garage sales... laughing...

Even when we're all working full-time like real adults, it will still be summer. And there will be a pool. And we'll live just across the street. What more could we want?

Unmotivation and love.

I am entirely unmotivated today. I want nothing to do with school, work, anything. I want to make no effort whatsoever. But, life doesn't work like that. So here's what I've been thinking about lately.

Today I was listening to a radio show (not NPR, though I do LOVE NPR). The DJs were talking about marriage and diamond rings and such. One of them insisted that women will not stand for a cubic zirconium, blah blah blah. The reason he gave was that women get married "for the ring and the pageantry at the wedding". It's all for show, basically. It's all for everyone else. It's all superficial.

Nope. That's not it at all! It made me really sad... I want so much for our lives, our marriage.

I love him. I'm learning how to love him better, less selfishly. It's hard, but I'm learning.

I also love sunny days that turn into rain, walking hand-in-hand with Claire, listening to her sing made-up songs for 10+ minutes... It's so sweet. I also love weekends.

I realized a few days ago that my life will be completely, COMPLETELY, different in a year from now. I'm about to graduate college... Which means I'm done with school. Which means the routine and the way the year has worked all of my life is about to change. And then 8 months after that, we'll be married. And that's a HUGE, WONDERFUL change.

I'm excited for the advice people have to give us. If you're reading this, and you have any advice for engagement/wedding/marriage, please help. Thanks.

Spring and what to do with sprouting onions.

I don't normally eat onions. I can't cut them without wearing goggles or my eyes will burn like death... The consistency is weird and slimy. I really do like the taste, but don't want to have to go through the work or unforunate sliminess. However, I bought one a few weeks ago. They must've been on sale. As much as I try to eat the food that I have and not buy frivolously, I forgot about the onion in all of the excitement. Poor onion. I returned from spring break to see that he had sprouted (a lot) in the week I was gone. There's no eating him now, I thought.

What to do with a sprouted onion? It's raining today, and spring is finally sprung.

So... I planted the onion. Maybe he'll grow.


Spring and sprouts remind me of the resurrection. We read all four accounts of it this morning... After dark Friday, I can't wait for our celebration tonight.

I am greatly looking forward to this summer... Fresh fruit, garage sales and flea markets, yoga with friends, devouring books with no motivation except my own, speaking/hearing Spanish... all of it. Being a college graduate will be a plus too.

Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.

This has been my life; I found it worth living.

- Bertrand Russell

I found this quote today and thought it appropriate. It's how I want to live my life.

Anyways, I said I would write more about spring break. I'd have to say it was the best one ever, though not as relaxing as I had hoped before it began. He proposed to me and I said yes. And screamed a lot. I was completely surprised, which was sweet. We spent hours and days with my family, and it was the perfect start to life. I feel so blessed to get to know this man, to spend time with him, laughing and talking and driving and just everything.

And now it's hard to return to school... classes and work and work again and homework and sleep and everything that just seems to get in the way of life. I just want to sit in this - to know him better and learn all that I want and need to learn.

I'm so excited to see where God leads us. What he teaches us through each other and through life. I'm so excited that I get to live life along with David.... It's gonna be fun.

I can hardly believe it. David and I are engaged! And I'm so happy.

Love is an interesting thing. A wonderful thing. And I'm learning more and more about it, how to love and how to receive love.

I'll write more later.